Improvement in water-skates



W. O. SOULE; Water-Skate.

No. 216,234. Patented June 3, 1879. Q

Wmqssefi: firm-M 7%@,Jm5u

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WELLING G. SOULE, OF SAVANNAH, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN WATER-SKATES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 216,234, dated June 3,1879; application filed March 29, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WELLING O. SoULE, of Savannah, in the county ofWayne and State of New York, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Water-Skates; and I do hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as willenable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and useit, reference being had to the accompanying -drawings, which form partof this specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in water-skates; and it consistsin a boat-shaped contrivance that is to be fastened to each foot, andwhich is provided with hinged stops on its under side, so as to preventit from slipping backward in the water as the other foot is movedforward, as will be more fully described hereinafter.

Figure l is a side elevation of my invention, and Fig. 2 is an invertedView of the same.

00 represents a boat-shaped frame, made water-tight all over except atthe hole where the foot is inserted, and which will be made large orsmall in proportion to the weight of the one going to use them. Theseskates may be made widest at the point where the foot is inserted, or ofany other shape that may be preferred. In order to prevent leakage atthe hole where the foot is inserted, a regular boot or other similarfixture may be secured in the skate and made water-tight around thehole.

Then, should the water wash up over the top of the skate, it could onlyfill the boot around the foot at most.

Pivoted or otherwise loosely attached to the bottom of the skate are anumber of stops,

0, which move back against the bottom as the skates move forward throughthe water; but the moment the skate begins to move backward these stopsinstantly drop vertically down, and thus present their whole surface forthe water to act against. As there will be a number of these stops, itwill readily be seen that only a very powerful effort will cause theforemost skate to move backward while the rear one is being movedforward, and, as this effort is never made, the skater can move over thesurface of the water as upon the ice, but not so rapidly.

In order to prevent the stops from moving backward past a vertical line,a suitable projection is fastened rigidly to the bottom of the skate,where the skate is only intended to move forward, and against theseprojections e the stops rest or bear. Should it be desired to have theskate move both backward and forward, there will be two projections toeach stop, fastened to a rod, i, at right angles to each other. Byturning the crank on the end of the rod, either set of projections maybe brought into play, and thus the skate may be made to move in onedirection as well as the other.

Having thus described my invention, I claim--- A water-skate providedwith the stops 0, in combination with the rod '17, having theprojections a secured to it, substantially as shown.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this24th day of March, 1879.

WELLING O. SOULE. Witnesses:

CHARLES W. ARNOLD, WM. E. HUMPHRnY.

